CULTURE 



269 



special care must be given to the soil before seeding, in 

 order to have it well fined and free of weeds. 



Before machines were invented for drilling in the wheat, 

 it was sown broadcast, and this method is used by some 

 farmers to this day. But broadcasting (which is simply 

 throwing the grain around by hand) is very wasteful. 

 Its wastefulness points the moral to a well-known parable 



OATS NATURAL SIZE. 



in the Bible. According to the parable some good seed 

 fell on shallow ground, some on stony ground, and only a 

 part fell on good ground. 



In order to sprout well and to produce a thrifty growth 

 afterwards, the grain should be planted from one to two 

 inches deep. The drill can be set in such a manner as 

 to secure not only the proper depth for the seed to grow 

 best, but to make the amount of seed planted in a given 

 space equal to that planted in any other equal space. 

 This cannot be done by broadcasting, no matter how 

 carefully the seed is afterward harrowed in. Some seeds 



